This invention relates to traps for catching animals in the wild, and in particular to so-called xe2x80x9chumanexe2x80x9d traps that minimize or prevent injuries to animals sustained when and after an animal is caught while providing reliable physical retention of the animal about the trap.
Traps intended for the catching of animalsxe2x80x94mainly mammalsxe2x80x94in the wild, consist essentially of snares, or facing jaw traps. The jaws of some conventional traps are provided with sharp teeth, for penetrating deep into and maintaining firmly one of the legs of the animal caught by the trap. The pressure applied by those jaws is always very strong, which has the effect of severely wounding the trapped animal, before release by the hunter. Some of these animal may even die of their injuries before the hunter comes back to his trap. Snares thrown too quickly may also cause the same results. Moreover, these types of traps do not allow one to carry out a selective hunting whereby the animals so trapped cannot be released, because the extent of bodily injuries sustained by these animals would be such as to require expensive veterinary cares that are beyond the means of most hunters. Also, domestic animals, or animals protected under law (e.g. endangered species) may be accidentally trapped and injured or killed.
Alternate trap embodiments that attempted to deal with the above-noted bodily injuries to the caught animal, have several drawbacks. One such drawback is that these modified traps are too easy for the trapped animal to open and freely escape therefrom, and thus are unreliable. Existing humane traps still do inflict some bodily injuries, although to a lesser degree than conventional traps with sharp teeth jaws. The unstable rigid frame of some humane traps can hamper the effective operation of the slip-knot lace involved in the animal retention. Some other humane traps can also be rendered ineffective by becoming damaged under the load of a more powerful wild animal, such as a wolf.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,031,728 issued in 1912 (inventor Obiols) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,389,807 issued in 1983 (inventor Novak) both show an animal trap which comprises a snare which lies on the ground in the case of the Novak device, and which lies on the ground-resting frame in the case of the Obiols patent. A trigger located centrally of the snare will release a spring-loaded arm when stepped upon, so as to pull the snare up on the animal""s leg. This type of trap is rather conventional, and has been found to be unreliable, since the animal often has enough time to retrieve his leg once the mechanism is triggered and before he is ensnared. Also, this trap often moves or tilts when stepped on by the animal, which will result in the spring-loaded arm carrying the snare along the ground instead of up the animal leg. Finally, an animal standing above the pivotable arm may prevent the trap from functioning.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,844 issued in 1986 (inventor Torkko) discloses an animal trap which is similar to the above-mentioned Obiols and Novak devices, with the exception that the snare rests on a unitary integral circular frame ring that is attached to the spring-loaded pivotable arm. Thus, upon the animal triggering the trap, the frame ring carries the snare in its upward pivotal displacement along the leg of the animal, to increase the likelihood that the animal will indeed be ensnared. Although animals may indeed be caught more easily with such a snare, it remains unreliable since the pivotal motion of the long spring-loaded arm is too slow to ensnare some animals and animals standing above the pivotable arm may prevent the trap from functioning. Moreover, and more importantly, the Torkko snare will often injure animals, since the rigid frame of the trap will remain caught on the animal""s leg, due to the fact that the animal leg extends through the rigid frame ring. When the animal realizes that he has been ensnared, he will kick and struggle to break free and consequently is likely to injure himself by flailing the rigid trap frame about.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,907,922 issued in 1999 (inventor Belisle) shows an animal trap comprising a ground resting frame carrying a pair of opposite, pivotable, spring-loaded jaws. The jaws will close themselves upon the animal stepping on a central trigger. A snare lace, initially located under the jaws, will close upon the animal""s leg due to the animal struggling to break free from the rigid frame. However, a problem with the Belisle trap is that the rigid frame will more often than not remain attached with the snare lace on the animal""s leg. As the animal kicks and struggles to break free, he will involuntarily flail the rigid frame against himself, injuring himself.
The invention relates to a trap for use with a snare for ensnaring animals, the snare of the type including a loop lace, a loop lace anchoring line linked to the loop lace and anchoring means for fixedly anchoring the anchoring line, said trap comprising:
a ground-resting frame;
first and second jaws pivotally carried by said frame, said jaws being movable between an opened position in which said first and second jaws are spread apart, and a closed position in which said first and second jaws are closed against each other;
releasable biasing means that bias said jaws towards said closed position;
a lock movable between a first operative position, in which it retains said jaws in said opened position against the bias of said biasing member, and a second inoperative position in which it releases said jaws to allow them to move towards said closed position under the bias of said biasing mean;
a lock trigger for forcing said lock towards said inoperative position upon a load being applied thereon; and
a loop lace channel for carrying the snare loop lace, said loop lace channel comprising a first channel portion on said first jaw and a second channel portion on said second jaw, said first and second channel portions thus being movable with said first and second jaws, respectively, between said opened and closed positions of said jaws for carrying the loop lace with said jaws from said opened position towards said closed position, for positively moving said loop lace around an animal leg upon said jaws being triggered to move into said closed position on the animal leg.
In one embodiment, the trap further comprises a biasing means disabling system for selectively disabling said biasing means thus selectively cancelling its biasing action on said jaws.
In one embodiment, said biasing means is a resilient U-shaped spring member defining a first and a second leg, with said first leg releasably engaging a recess in said frame and with said second leg engaging said first and second jaws to bias said jaws towards said closed position, said biasing means disabling system comprising a spring member anchor line attached to said spring member at a first end thereof and destined to be fixedly anchored at a second end thereof whereby said spring member first leg can be forcibly removed from said recess to disable said biasing means thus selectively cancelling its biasing action on said jaws.
The invention also relates to a trap for ensnaring animals comprising:
a snare comprising a loop lace, a loop lace anchoring line linked to the loop lace and anchoring means for fixedly anchoring the anchoring line;
a ground-resting frame;
first and second jaws pivotally carried by said frame, said jaws being movable between an opened position in which said first and second jaws are spread apart, and a closed position in which said first and second jaws are closed against each other;
releasable biasing means that bias said jaws towards said closed position;
a lock movable between a first operative position, in which it retains said jaws in said opened position against the bias of said biasing member, and a second inoperative position in which it releases said jaws to allow them to move towards said closed position under the bias of said biasing mean;
a lock trigger for forcing said lock towards said inoperative position upon a load being applied thereon; and
a loop lace channel carrying said snare loop lace and comprising a first channel portion on said first jaw and a second channel portion on said second jaw, said first and second channel portions thus being movable with said first and second jaws, respectively, between said opened and closed positions of said jaws and carrying said loop lace with said jaws from said opened position towards said closed position, for positively moving said loop lace around an animal leg upon said jaws being triggered to move into said closed position on the animal leg.
In one embodiment, said biasing means is a resilient U-shaped spring member defining a first and a second leg, with said first leg releasably engaging a recess in said frame and with said second leg engaging said first and second jaws to bias said jaws towards said closed position, said trap further comprising a spring member anchor line attached to said spring member at a first end thereof and destined to be fixedly anchored at a second end thereof whereby said spring member first leg can be forcibly removed from said recess to disable said biasing means thus selectively cancelling its biasing action on said jaws.
In one embodiment, the trap further comprises a temporary retaining device on said anchoring line intermediate said loop lace and said anchoring means, said temporary retaining device being destined to be releasably anchored, the length of said loop lace plus the length of said loop lace anchoring line between said loop lace and said temporary retaining device being equal to or less than the length of said spring member anchoring line, and the length of said spring member anchoring line being less than the length of said loop lace anchoring line.
In one embodiment, said temporary retaining device is a ground peg for releasable engagement of said ground peg in the ground.